I have a buddy who has a stagecoach gun, it's pretty old but looks to be in really good shape for it's age. he's afraid to shoot it due to the age of the barrel. He was told that his barrel was a "wire" barrel and might blow up if fired due to it's age. Anyone know of a good way to test that to find out if first it is as stated, and second if it is intact.ThanksMark

“Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” (James Madison, The Federalist Papers #46 at 243-244)

Here in Pennsylvania these barrels were fairly common (especially in 16 ga.) thirty plus years back. There were brave souls that fired modern smokeless rounds in them and never had an issue, but I always thought if I ever owned one I'd load up some low pressure black powder rounds, which is what they were designed to fire. I tried to find a way to test them, but couldn't. If memory serves, I thought it was a combination of magnifying the barrel and some sort of acid test but I can't remember for certain. There were also a fair number of "fake" damascus barrels, i.e. regular steel barrels made to look like the more expensive damascus.